Too much TV! Can’t. Keep. Up. This post was due a month ago (when it still felt like fall), but I haven’t even found enough time to watch all the shows, let alone write about them. Now that streaming channels are going head-to-head with the networks and releasing their new shows (and even debuting new channels) around this time that’s traditionally been reserved for broadcasters, we’ve got TV overload. To try to help out, I’m going to give a little write-up on some of the shows that I’ve streamed lately. I’m going to start with newer new shows but also cover some that I streamed going back even to late summer. Buckle up!

Apple TV+

See

I was fortunate enough to receive a year’s worth of the new Apple TV+ channel with my new iPhone, so I’ve been able to stream the new sci-fi series See. After humans have been mostly wiped out by plague, the survivors all lost the ability to see. The show is set a few hundred years later, when civilization is in a dark age and even the idea of vision is a myth unspoken. Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones) plays the leader of one of the tribes living in a mountainous wilderness. Even though I’ve only watched the first episode, I’m somewhat interested in the world-building and politics behind the main story of this tribe’s survival in a post-apocalyptic world. I’m generally not a huge fan of this kind of story about warlords and primitive, brute-force civilizations. I prefer my sci-fi a bit more refined, but it’s clear that Apple’s big budgets have made a show that is nice to watch (the aerial shots of the mountains and valleys are wonderfully expansive — ironic for a show where all the characters are supposed to be blind). Still, I can’t help but be distracted looking for continuity gaps where characters don’t act like they really would if there had been no sight for generations. So far they’ve done pretty well, down to the use of “hearing” words in place of “seeing” words that we take for granted in our normal speech. Nevertheless, I find that too much of our current civilization has been lost in this new world considering only a few centuries have passed (e.g. the characters’ names seem too different from today’s, especially when many of the names we use have been around for hundreds of years themselves). The show has not blown me away, but I think I’ll keep watching, if for no other reason than to take advantage of my free subscription until some better shows arrive.

Dickinson

The other Apple show that I’ve watched (not counting the mediocre Canadian kids show Ghost Writer, and the over-hyped The Morning Show, neither of which I could endure for the full first episode), I watched this confusing reinterpretation of the life of American poet Emily Dickinson by way of The CW’s teen aesthetic. I’m not sure why the showrunners decided to go this route, but Emily (played pretty well by Hailee Steinfeld) talks like a 21st century teen in the society of the early 19th century. The effect is jarring — especially since every character uses today’s slang — when they talk about class and gender in 19th century terms. I get how this points out how backward the ideas were two centuries ago, but it seems odd to keep the dissonance going. Emily is depicted as a wealthy young woman who wants to avoid doing anything (not just “women’s work”) other than thinking about death, and writing poetry. The soundtrack is full of today’s music (I half expected an ad for purchasing the album from iTunes at the end of the episode), which further plays with the expectations of a Victorian story. Unfortunately, I’m not quite sure whether I don’t like the show, or Emily’s character, but either way I don’t really want to keep watching. So, unfortunately that’s two (or you could even say four) strikes against Apple TV+.

HBO/Crave

Watchmen

This series is loosely-based (not even based, but more inspired by) the comic book from the 80s and the movie adaptation from 10 years ago. It continues the story of that society where there had been costumed vigilantes and heroes, who eventually became outlaws and rejected by society. In the HBO series, we are introduced to new characters, including Lady Night (played by Regina King), who is a costumed vigilante and former police officer (police are endangered in their current society as well, and need to protect their identities by wearing masks). The series is very polished, and has a similar brooding tone to the film, as well as to many other HBO series. For the first two episodes, I honestly was a little concerned that the series (which I am enjoying so far) would go the way of fellow HBO series Westworld in terms of getting more and more slow, confusing and cryptic. However, the third episode introduced an FBI character (why does the FBI always get the best characters?) played by Jean Smart, who is a former Watchmen and helps move the story along. The show does take a bit of focus to enjoy, and it is not really a superhero show (not in the way that Amazon’s The Boys was and definitely not like any of Marvel shows on Netflix or the CW’s Arrowverse shows either) so I have not been able to watch the newer episodes yet, but I will catch up as soon as I can.

His Dark Materials

Another book adapted into a movie that has now been readapted into an HBO/BBC TV series, His Dark Materials is an exciting new children’s fantasy adventure that adults can enjoy as well. Set in a semi-steampunk semi-Victorian world, the story focuses on the adventures of Lyra Belacqua and her friend Will Parry. Lyra is (of course) an orphan whose uncle is a controversial and brave explorer, played by James McAvoy, who has discovered in the North something magical about the universe. Lyra wants to join him on his quest, but instead she is watched over by a mysterious guardian, Mrs. Coulter, who takes her away from Jordan College, where she’s grown up, and so her adventures begin. Also, it’s full of CGI animal companions (which look pretty good), because in this universe, human souls manifest themselves as creature familiars known as daemons. This kind of genre is probably one of my favourites, so I am super-excited to continue watching this series.

Catherine the Great

As much as I like grand costume drama about European royalty; and as much as I love the amazing Dame Helen Mirren, I just did not want to keep watching this show after the first episode. Mirren plays the titular Russian monarch with a bit of swagger and decadence (which may be historically accurate for all I know) but which I’m not enjoying. Further to that, her paramour and ally, Grigory Potemkin, is played by Jason Clarke. You may have to look him up (I wasn’t very familiar with him). He might be a very good actor, but when the ladies of the court describe his character as an object of lust and admiration, I did not expect him, and I can’t get over the apparent miscasting (though I have googled portraits of Potemkin and maybe it’s not such a mistake after all). For my fix of royal-watching, I might continue with this series when I’ve caught up with my viewing backlog, but given that the new season of The Crown featuring Olivia Colman is coming to Netflix this weekend, I don’t think that will be any time soon.

Amazon Prime

Modern Love

This little big show surprised me, and what surprises me even more is how it might be the top of my list to someone asking for a streaming recommendation. It starts out feeling like a romantic comedy (BTW, I’m also enjoying the Hulu TV series based on the rom-com Four Weddngs and a Funeral) but more accurately Modern Love is an anthology show (i.e. each episode is about different characters) about all different kinds of love, not just romantic. The series is nicely written and very watchable. Episodes feature some pretty big name stars, including a heartbreaking performance by Anne Hathaway, as well as Tina Fey, Cristin Milioti (her story comes first and it is very heart-warming), Dev Patel (his episode is my favourite), Andrew Scott, John Slattery, Andy Garcia, and more. The stories are a little bit of everything: odd, endearing, emotional, a little confusing, a little uncomfortable, but also relatable. This is an easy binge that I highly recommend.

Carnival Row

This urban Dickensian fantasy show had such promise, but now it’s been out for a number of months and I still have not made it very far into it. Set in a fictional British slum where fairies and magical beings who have been displaced from their homelands end up living, it should have been right up my alley (no pun intended). Orlando Bloom doesn’t play an elf this time, but he does play a human detective, named Rycroft Philostrate, trying to investigate a murderer who is killing magical victims in the Carnival Row area. Cara Delevigne plays a fairy named Vignette Stonemoss who used to be his lover and a freedom fighter who ends up in the same area (after years of believing that he had died). The story also follows various others including Vignette’s mistress, a wealthy human who has strong prejudices against her new neighbour for being a magical creature (but we all know where that is heading). I’m interested in the murder investigation plot line but the rest all seems to be a boring conventional story dealing with bigotry and inequality in Victorian England all thinly coated with some pixie dust.

Netflix

Living With Yourself

If you enjoyed Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix (which I definitely did), you will enjoy Paul Rudd and Paul Rudd in Living With Yourself. He plays a middle-aged advertising man who’s stuck in a rut. The solution to his problems seem to inadvertently involve cloning, so Rudd also plays a refreshed, more exuberant version of his character as well. You’d expect nothing less from Rudd, but the show applies humour and a light-hearted charm to a common sci-fi concept and works out all the kinks and implications of it in the context of a normal, relatable man’s life. Rudd is great, as always, and the story is full of some fun yet believable twists. This is another easy binge over the weekend.

Criminal UK

This short, three-episode British series is one of four (including series from Germany, Spain, and France — which I can’t wait to watch) which are each set in a police interrogation room (you know, the kind with the one-way mirror). Each episode depicts a single case and happens pretty much in real time, dramatizing an interview between detectives on one side of the table and suspected criminals on the other side. There are some pretty big names so far, including David Tennant in the first episode, and Hayley Atwell in the second. There is a theatrical intensity to the having the entire show set in a single room, and there are some good twists as well. The performances are great to watch and really get into these characters for a brief time. I don’t know if the other series will be as engaging, since I’ll need to read the subtitles, but I think they will be at least as thrilling.

I’d better hurry up and post this, since my watchlist is piling up each minute. I already have a backlog, since new streaming channel Disney+ just came out, and I owe you some comments on The Mandalorian. I’ll also be back with the new seasons of Rick and Morty, The Crown, The Dragon Prince, and The Toys That Made Us. Our streaming TV cups truly runneth over!